Kaneohe resident Carol Russell was sitting in her car, enjoying the sunrise with a cup of coffee on a Koo­lau lookout when she took advantage of a "picture perfect" moment that would earn her a top spot in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cutest Bird Photo Contest for May.

"This wild chicken walked by and stopped to stare at me," said Russell in a news release. "His expression was priceless — as though I had a nerve to be on his mountain. The sun was just rising behind him, making his feathers glow. I snapped the photo through my windshield."

Her photo is posted on the USDA’s Biosecurity for Birds website.

Biosecurity for Birds is a public outreach initiative by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to help people keep their pet birds healthy to prevent disease outbreaks.

The Cutest Bird Photo Contest, which ends today, seeks entries in two categories: "cutest chicken or bird" and "cutest couple or bird family."

Winners are chosen monthly through this month, with their photos posted on the Biosecurity for Birds website and considered for the program’s 2014 calendar.

Russell, a USDA plant protection and quarantine officer, said she regularly visits the lookout on weekends to watch the sunrise, calling it "one of the more fabulous perks of living in Hawaii."

Michele Ledoux of Croghan, N.Y., submitted May’s winning "bird family" shot of Honey, a Nankin bantam, with its chick.

For contest details, visit healthybirds.aphis.usda.gov and click on "Cutest Bird Photo Contest."